WASHINGTON (CNN) - Some House Democrats are calling for impeachment hearings against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to begin in the House Judiciary Committee unless he voluntarily resigns or is dismissed by President Bush.

"There is a national embarrassment in the United States attorney general's office," said Rep Jay Inslee, D-Washington, the resolution's author. "It needs to be remedied. And if the president does not do his clear job, we will do ours."

Inslee and 14 other Democrats introduced a resolution Tuesday ordering the House Judiciary Committee to "investigate whether Alberto R. Gonzales, attorney general of the United States, should be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors."

The measure's sponsors cite Gonzales' controversial testimony last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the domestic surveillance program and the firing of several United States attorneys as adequate grounds for impeachment hearings.

"An investigation will root out all the details and will move us in the right direction," said Rep Ben Chandler, D-Kentucky.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer did not explicitly support the resolution, but said it "reflects significant sentiment in Congress and around the country. Alberto Gonzales has not been candid and truthful with the Congress of the United States and the American people."

Unlike the House Judiciary Committee's recent contempt of Congress charges against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, intervention by the Department of Justice would not be needed for an impeachment investigation, supporters of the measure say.

"The president thinks he has a checkmate over democracy," Inslee said. "Well, he cannot checkmate an impeachment inquiry. This is the tool in the toolbox we can use."

A spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee did not say if the resolution will be taken up by the committee when Congress returns from August recess.

I hope the Dems move forward with Impeachment Proceedings. Nothing will galvanize the nation more than exposing the Democrats for wasting precious resources over parsing the AG's statements – which based on the revelation of Data-mining appear to be factual. But the Dems don't care about facts... just saber-rattling, hoot-n-hollering. Notice the House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer didn't explicitly support the resolution.

All talk – No action (passing meaningful legislation). That's the leadership in Congress!

Having watched clips of Mr. Gonzales' non-testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I think impeaching him is a great idea. Has the man answered any questions with anything other than some permutation of "I can't remember" or "I can't recall" or "I wasn't there?" Maybe the threat of impeachment will jog his memory.

I realize that they, as well as their rank-and-file followers like yourself, think that they're the only 3 officials in the country, but there are others. In fact, many of those wanting impeachment are "officials," elected and urged by their constituents to do exactly the sort of oversight that we're seeing now.

Impeach Gonzales? What message will that send and to whom. Bush will just pardon him of any wrongdoing as he does with the rest of his collegues. We need to inact proceedings to impeach Bush and/or Cheney. That will send a message. It doesn't even matter if it's sucessful. the rest of the world needs to know how we feel about the lousy failures of our current administration. Because continuing to let this administration go unchecked is a tragedy that cannot continue.
We need to dig unroot the bad tree not just pick off the fruit it continues to create. We're still left with the bad tree.

During the August recess I hope the members of Congress will spend some time reacquainting themselves with their constitutions. Maybe then they will see that our calls for impeachment are our attempt to save our constitutional democracy; and their inability to build an across party coalition to put an end to the "the constitution is just a god damed piece of paper" attitude. If our leaders can not be held to the rule of law, to complete openness, forthrightness, and honesty the United States of America has joined the fallen Roman Empire.

Once again, comments like Allen show me that the American Public just doesn't get it. You probably voted for Bush, TWICE. Please Allen, respond with a list of people who have been impeached by the "demwits". True, politicians are a joke. They receive bribes, steal, cheat, and pretty much look after themselves. Then again, who votes for them? US. If you want a change, then work on making one. The public did by sending the Democrats into Congress. And look at all the scandals they are uncovering........don't hide behind the Confederate Flag.....realize the truth.

This action is way-y-y-y overdue. I earnestly pray that this is just the first of many impeachment action taken against this administration. As a nation, we are in more danger than ever before in our history. Professionals are saying that "George Bush -confronted with more defeats and reversals -might just 'lose it' and undertake even more reckless military adventures". We should all urge Congress to take Cheney and Bush out of office beore they do any more damage. And I hope I do not find the FBI knocking at my door.

If he lied under oath I'm all for it; however I don't quite understand why Democrats would be upset with someone from the Executive branch lying under oath. Seems to me they didn't mind it when Bubba did it... Maybe Al will get acquitted in the Senate too. Guess they need an excuse for not actually doing anything...

"Can you name one official the demwits have not called to be impeached?"

We don't have to name them... they keep stepping into it themselves. If you think Michael Brown, Ted Stevens, that California repub that took defense contractor bribes... David Vitter... et. al. are not criminals then what exactly is crime?

The sponsors of this Resolution are all former prosecutors and Gonzales is the only Repellican who is the subject of a Resolution. He outdims the shadows of other GOP names mentioned as crooks worthy of a trial.

allen, you are a joke. You live in Mississippi, the armpit of America. Why don't you get an education before you knock on the dems. There is a reason that the ratio of Congressional Members under investigation is something like 14 republicans versus 2 democrats. Clearly republicans are not the moral party anymore, as anyone who has heard of the Vitter debacle can attest.

The only joke out there allen is you and the others in that 30% minority that keep making excuses for these crooks and lairs. How dim can you be to not see the obvious damage to our democracy that these GOP fools are perpetuating.

Also don't blame the democrats for a terrible administration. If I remember the last impeachment was brought upon by the Republican even though they knew they never ever had the votes to convict. Maybe that is why Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi don't want to waste 8 weeks of congress's time on an impeachment that will get 49 votes and never convict. Maybe they want to but would rather work on more important issues, like bringing out troops home.